Despite apparent invincibility over the past few weeks, the volleyball team (17-7, 9-3 Ivy) slipped a little this weekend after a 3-0 loss to Penn (14-9, 6-5) on Friday. The Red bounced back on Saturday with a 3-1 win over Princeton (16-7, 7-4) after a complete turnaround performance in which the Red broke three school records.
Even with sophomore Liz Bishop putting up yet another double-double that included 24 kills and 14 digs, the Red was not able to overcome an excellent Quaker effort. Penn had contributions from all ends, although Michelle Kaufmann played particularly well, putting up 10 kills and a .226 hitting percentage. Kaufmann accounted for 12.0 points, the most of any Quaker.
“Liz hit well on Friday,” explained head coach Deitre Collins. “[But] we really struggled. Things really were just not clicking on Friday.”
Penn showed incredible resilience considering its Ivy League record. The Quakers managed to hold on and edge out each of the first two games, 30-28 and 32-30, and then came out very strongly in Game 3 for a 30-24 win.
The Red responded well on Saturday, sticking it to Princeton with a 3-1 victory. Cornell was propelled by a highest-ever 83 attempts by Bishop and sophomore Katie Rademacher’s record 16 total blocks and 15 block assists.
Although the four games between the two squads were not all Cornell blowouts at 30-25, 30-21, 29-31, and 30-25, the Red absolutely dominated in statistics away from the score sheet. Cornell led in essentially every category, including kills (73-57), hitting percentage (.253-.117), digs (83-78), blocks (20-6), and aces (5-3). Four Cornell players put up double digits in kills to greatly hinder the Tigers’ opportunity to establish any kind of offense. In addition, junior Whitney Fair put up a career-high 64 assists in the Red’s strong performance.
When asked about her team’s remarkable resilience seen time and time again this season, Collins replied, “I’ve seen my team play some incredible matches. Nothing can take that away.”
The split weekend again leaves the Red tied for first in the Ivy League with rival Harvard, which had a split weekend itself. The Crimson barely eked a win out over Brown on Friday and then was swept by Yale on Saturday. The Red will meet both of these teams next weekend, which will determine who takes first place in the Ivy League.
“It’s icing on the cake to win the league, but I will not walk away from this [season] disappointed,” Collins said.
Archived article by Mike Pandolfini
Sun Staff Writer